The sailors aboard a United States Navy submarine circulated a list of the woman force under its wing by ranking the female crew of their sexual appearance and lewd comments.
The controversial 'rape list' was created by the sailors aboard the guided-missile submarine USS Florida's Gold homeported in Kingsbay, Georgia. The 74-page report containing the list was unearthed by Military.com through a Freedom of Information Request Act.
According to the reports, there are two lists containing the woman's name. While one gives ratings for the woman the other list has salacious remarks targeting the female crew members of the Navy's second submarine which had integrated woman in the crew.
The incident came into light in June 2018, after two sailors of the USS Florida brought the lists to a superior officer. The sailors reported that the lists were stored in an internal computer network and was updated regularly. In February 2018, the submarine became the second to affiliate female members to the staff and during that period it had employed 32 women in its 173 member crew.
The Florida Gold crew's commanding officer Capt. Gregory Kercher was fired in August 2018 for a loss of confidence in his ability to lead. At least two sailors assigned to the submarine were also sacked, and an undisclosed number faced administrative punishment in connection to the 'rape list'.
The investigation report states that Kercher had directed for a search in the submarine's network to confirm and locate the list and to identify the people who had access to it. But he failed to notify his command and fell short on opening a formal investigation.
Rear Adm. Jeff Jablon, then-commander of Submarine Group 10, wrote to his superior officer days before Kercher's relief. He said that "Rumors of a 'rape list' was promulgated throughout the crew, significant numbers of females became concerned for their safety, and male members who learned of the list were equally repulsed," reports Military.com.
Adm. Chas Richard, commander of US Submarine Forces said, "While I cannot guarantee that an incident such as this will never happen again, I can guarantee that we will continue to enforce our high standards of conduct and character in the Force". He also said that the submarine personnel should greet anyone with respect and dignity and those who fall short of the Navy's standards would be held accountable for their actions.
According to a 2014 Pentagon study, the Navy's track record with sexual exploitation is the worst in the military, with women at some naval installations facing a 17.1 per cent risk of being sexually assaulted in the course of a year, reports RT Question More.
